The Red Sox announced that shortstop Xander Bogaerts will be placed on the 10-day disabled list after tests revealed a small crack in the talus bone in his left ankle. The injury is nondisplaced and will not require surgery. Bogaerts is expected to miss 10-to-14 days.
The Red Sox recalled infield Tzu-Wei Lin from Triple-A Pawtucket on Tuesday.
Obviously, this is a tough blow for the Red Sox heading into the series with the Yankees.
That’s gonna put the ball at the 1 yard line.
Xander Bogaerts hurt his ankle because he’s a phenomenal athlete. Alex Cora said we’ll know more tomorrow, per @NESN #RedSox pic.twitter.com/qoNqyo1vbq
— The Greatest Show on Dirt (@greatestondirt) April 9, 2018
Dr. Jessica Flynn's BSJ analysis
Bogaerts will probably miss more than the timeframe offered by the Red Sox.
The most common cause of an injury to the talus is when the ankle rolls ligaments or the joint capsule avulse a sliver of bone off of the talus. Treatment is immobilization in a boot and rest. The return is dependent on how quickly sprain heals and can be two to six weeks.
The other possibility is that it is a stress fracture of the talus. I would be more suspicious of that if the fracture was not the result of twisting the ankle. A stress fracture of the talus can also take four-to-six weeks to heal.
- He rolled his ankle on the slide/dugout and had an ankle sprain that pulled a sliver of bone off of the talus. Return-to-play could be two weeks at the earliest and up to four depending on how quickly the sprain heals
- It's a stress fracture of the talus and it cracked through on that play. He would likely be in non-weight bearing in a boot and return could be much longer, closer to four-to-six weeks.
Sean McAdam just chimed in to say that Tzu-Wei will split time at shortstop with Brock Holt.
Thanks for checking out BostonSportsJournal.com. Feel free to check out some of our best stories from the past in our Free Preview section here. If you'd like to support independent and locally owned journalism, subscribe today!
Dr. Jessica Flynn is a sports medicine physician at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, MA. She writes about injuries in professional sports on her blog, DocFlynn.com. You can follow her on Twitter @jessdeede.
Have a question for Dr. Flynn's weekly mailbag? You can send those to her at any time via email (docflynn@bostonsportsjournal.com), or you can Tweet them to her here.